America imprisons an incredibly high amount of people in its jails and prisons, in which, the sheer amount of resources devoted to this institution, would presupposed that society should be receiving something of real merit in return. Additionally, there is a very basic obligation that incarcerated people be accorded basic human rights and one way to assure that this is actually being accomplished is for prison guard body cameras to be the de rigueur way of verifying this along with the appropriate objective peer review of all meaningful interactions.
Of course, prison guards deserve to be protected and supported in their job duties in which prisoners can harm or even kill them, so too, their job can be a thankless task of being literally the last line of defense against people that have lost their sensibility and rationality, so the usage of certain stringent measures most certainly can be merited in circumstances necessitating such.
Then there are the unfortunate situations in which people with significant mental or drug issues are incarcerated, to which the prison environment exacerbates their problems, creating an unnecessary burden best dealt with by institutions set aside to handle these type of things, as opposed to incarceration which accomplishes little of real merit.
Another important factor favoring the usage of body cameras is for an objective review of procedures being conducted by prison personnel so as to ascertain that things being accomplished are in keeping with the rules and regulations in regards to the treatment of incarcerated individuals and hence such video can be utilized as necessary, for appropriate re-training, or disciplinary actions. In actuality, in most incarceration institutions, it is usually a very small minority of prisoners or the guards that create the troubles that can lead to unnecessary harm and material damages to begin with.
One of the most germane reasons why body cameras are so necessary in incarceration facilities is the tendency for the general public to assume that prisoners are treated appropriately, and their belief that since everything is pretty much out of sight and out of mind, that this is a fair attitude to take in regards to such things. The problem with this stance is that the vast majority of those currently incarcerated will at one time or another be released to the general public, so that those that are treated in inhumane ways, with their rights disrespected and truncated, probably will not readily adjust to public life, whereas those that have been treated in a more respectful way, with consideration and fairness, will no doubt, perform better.
Whether the general public cares or cares not for those that are incarcerated can best be responded to with the fact, that this particular industry that incarcerates people, whether through governmental institutions or subbed out to private correctional facilities, is a major drain against the budgets and monies of communities, and anything that will help to utilize these monies spent more effectively while also performing a service to the community would be considered to be a real boon.
Those that run correctional facilities have an obligation to be responsible to those that are incarcerated within the facilities while also having a fiduciary duty to do right by the general population, in which, the bright light of openness and transparency drives out the darkness of wrong and mistreatment.